I have had a couple of Sony-related annoyances in the last week, and what good is the Internet if you can’t use it to rage impotently about things of incredibly minor import in the grand scheme of things?

First, they seem to have patched the loophole I was using to buy points on the Japanese Playstation Network from the US. I was using a Japanese-issued credit card before and had been able to buy points without issue, but they seem to be actually looking at my location now and blocking me out of hand. I still have Y600 in my Japanese PSN account, so I guess I can buy a PSOne game if I find one I like, but the Saki game just got added to the store at Y2800 and I loves me some mahjong.

Secondly, and somewhat more annoyingly, the Blu-ray drive in my launch 60GB PS3 gave up the ghost last weekend. You can insert discs into it and eject them, but the console doesn’t acknowledge them at all. I’m torn between dropping the $150 to get it fixed or admitting that I can probably live without backwards compatibility and moving on. It can play downloaded games, sure, but a PS3 with no drive is one step up from a boat anchor.

At least they added Amazon Instant Video now, so it’s a slightly more useful boat anchor.